Medical Problem

An attraction to any activity, social or athletic, is the delightful euphoria resulting from pleasant associations, stimulating exercise and a sense of accomplishment. The pleasant associations are always there and long lasting and the sense of accomplishment gratifying throughout a lifetime of memories but the stimulating exercise tempered by physical and medical trauma at times. Rowing has the reputation of having one of the most exhausting demands of energy, affecting all parts of the body, encountered in any sport. During practice, of course, there may be frequent stops for rest or instruction, but in the ultimate contest, once under way, there is no opportunity for relief or reflection until the finish line is crossed. Nor is there any physical contact with an opponent to relieve tensions or even a first hand awareness of the status of others in ones own crew in the race to the unseen finish line. While in practice sessions the intensity may be reduced but is spread over a greater period of time and the wear and tear on the rower can be equally debilitating.

Damage to flesh and feelings can affect every part of the body from toes and heels blistered or made from abrasion in the shoe toe and heel pieces to scalp blistered by the sun. but fortunately there is no occasion for broken bones or damaged internal organs as in contact sports. Muscles and skin take the greatest abuse, and trauma and aggravations can after day without sufficient relief time to adequately heal and provide their own protection. Fortunate is the rower who, perhaps through his own physique and skill, is not plagued with one form or another of these problems.

Any boathouse locker room has, besides all the wet and smelly rowing clothing, various odoriferous remedies such as Tincture of Benzoin and Iodine, simple in sophistication yet about all that can be applied to flesh as well as rolls of adhesive tapes and jars of Vaseline and ointments. Where tables and time are available for rubdowns, self induced or applied by others, the perfume of Oil of Wintergreen and other balms permeates the atmosphere. Fresh air is not always a natural commodity.

Whatever can be applied to an injury can be quickly torn away by continuation of the causing condition, prolonging the healing process and interfering with training. Liniment on a screaming muscle helps mainly while being applied and like disappear and are forgotten, the body is built up and any scars remain in memory rather than in fact.

Conditions at a boathouse and on the water can have a lot to do with the prevalence of sores and pains. At the old upstream boathouse there was at first not even hot water for showers or heat for either comfort or the drying of clothes. Wet rowing clothes either stayed wet and put on that way for the next practice or either stayed wet and put on that way for the next practice or hung inside or outside for whatever benefit might accrue, and washing hung inside or outside for whatever benefit might accrue, and washing left to a rinse in the river or taken to home or dorm for the purpose which meant that it was a rare operation. Lack of sanitation provided prime breeding ground for germs, compounded by the contamination of sewage from the communities along the Charles River and abattoirs at Cambridge and Watertown. Boils and infections were common and there was no desire for a cooling swim after a hot practice. An important duty of a manager was to go over a shell immediately after removal from the water with an old towel to remove the layer of scum and oil before it hardened.

But these conditions gradually improved with cleanup of the sources of pollution, still municipal problem and the installation of a soft coal fired boiler in the boathouse in 1922 for hot water and heat. With exposed steam pipes running through the building and in the boiler room there were places, though very dusty and dirty, to hang wet clothes. It was not until the move to the Pierce Boathouse that there were washing machines, dryers and a drying room.

Besides the body conditions mentioned there were many other problem areas that any rower has endured in their entirety or in part. The calf of leg where, at the end of a stroke, it made contact with the end of the sliding seat track and the first sign of a hole being dug may not have been noticeable but it soon became a raw spot. And once started any pad or tape applied would neither do any good or stay very long in place with the continuous pounding, perspiration and splashing water. Any scab resulting from healing over a weekend would be quickly be torn off and complete healing could be forced to wait until termination of rowing or a combination of corrective measures.

Working upward, the next vulnerable point is the buttocks. A firm seating on the sliding seat is important to a good rowing position and rocking back and forth with each stroke makes that difficult and uneven even though the seat is dished somewhat to conform to the body and hold the tow together as intended. Few rowers have a lot of flesh as padding and the major support is the skin. This is aggravated by wet trunks, twisting to correct balance slipping to the wrong position on the seat and the best condition, seldom attained for long, is slightly moistened cloth that will neither slide nor irritate.

Because so much effort is transmitted by the back, most rowers have occasions of painful back muscles for no reason other than the strain of usage. This however, have means of correction in strengthening exercise and heat or massage though time is a most demanding corrective factor.

A precept of rowing is that only when the oar is the water are there and forces that will move a shell, therefore the reach, the moving seat and the layback. At the reach with the oar feathered the hands are low and vulnerable to damage by contact with gunwale, ribs or braces if the feathered blade should catch the top of a wave or the shell take a sudden lurch. Fingers and knuckles trapped between a part of the shell and the oar grip have the same effect as a misdirected hammer blow. This situation was responsible for the formation of an organization of oarsmen aptly named the "Rawnuks" to which all novices were honorary members until they were entitled to discharge by virtue of having been in a winning crew. In the meantime, Rawnuks were bound to obey rules of subordination and service to upperclassmen and personal denigration as members of an inferior group.

The pullthrough is a relatively safe part of the stroke, except for the strain on the muscles and lungs, as with all oars in the water the shell is held stable. But at the end of the stroke, approaching the point of recovery, the body is laid way back (old style) or slightly reclined (new style) with the hands close to the chest or stomach and sometimes making hard contact. At the same time the oar is dropped to bring the blade out of the water and at the same time rotated 90¡ to feather. These three actions --contact with the body, lowering the oar and feathering results in a scooping action that can irritate and quickly dig a sweat shirt or jersey, applied slave or tape that is quickly pulled off or intentions to not pull through to the point of contact. At this time thumbs are not immune to chaffing and blisters though they are a little more durable than belly skin.,p> Perhaps the most prone to suffer ate the hands and fingers during any part of the stroke as they are the main working tool of the body. Most common are the blisters that appear without warning until they are well formed and painful. Once formed there is little that can be done during a toughening up process that provides callouses. Even they, if not kept cut down to reasonable thickness, can develop blister fluid under the callous and that is difficult to overcome. Whatever happens is sure to be what will happen again though there are rowers who, either because of genes or inherent skills, are relatively free of such problems. A sure sign of an oarsman is one who instinctively picks at hands and fingers to remove dead skin or alleviate discomfort.